Cruising, Travel Agents and The Social Media – Vancouver To Gain While Victoria Loses – Boston Record – Houston To Gain Two Ships

The Cruise Examiner for 19th November 2012

With Holland America Line’s appointment of a dedicated director of social media last week, we look at a survey of travel agents on this subject completed by the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) earlier this year. Not surprisingly perhaps, 76% of travel agents have booked clients cruises on line but only 15% think participation in social media is “essential,” and almost half as many, 7%, think they are a waste of time. But the ASTA survey did not include blogs, like the one you are reading. Here are the ASTA survey results: –

Elsewhere, with cruise seasons just finishing, the news is mainly from the ports. Vancouver will see a rise of more than 20% to more than 820,000 passengers next year, caused mainly by the return of the Disney Wonder. Boston set a record in 2012 with 380,000 passengers, brought about because of the arrival of the Carnival Glory for cruises to Canada. And Houston will be getting two new ships in 2013-14, with first the Caribbean Princess and then the Norwegian Jewel.